OpenAI's Lawyer: How Big Tech is Winning the AI Race in the Courts episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 12, 2026 · 51 MIN

OpenAI's Lawyer: How Big Tech is Winning the AI Race in the Courts

from The Wall Street Skinny · host Kristen and Jen

We got to sit down with John Quinn — the "Quinn" of Quinn Emanuel — one of the most powerful litigators in the world, and the man whose firm is defending OpenAI right now. What does someone at the very top of the legal food chain see coming that the rest of us don't? And why does he think one of the oldest concepts in law is about to become the most valuable weapon in tech? Here's what pulled us down this rabbit hole. The most valuable companies on earth are pouring hundreds of billions into inventions almost none of them can legally protect. So how do you build a moat around something you're not allowed to own? Why are Apple and OpenAI trying to destroy each other in one courtroom and sitting on the same side in another? And what does any of this have to do with a viral park bench kiss that blew up one of the big law talent poaching deals? We get into all of it: why the patent wars fell by the wayside, what actually replaced them, and why every giant pay package in tech, finance, and now law is really a fight over the one thing no company can lock in a vault. Then John tells us where he thinks this is all headed — for the AI giants, for the lawyers, and for anyone thinking about the profession at all.

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OpenAI's Lawyer: How Big Tech is Winning the AI Race in the Courts

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